Tetiana Ostrikova: “Why aren’t the organizers of schemes at the customs brought to liability?”

06.07.2018

MP Tetiana Ostrikova from the Samopomich parliamentary faction says that despite numerous appeals and violations of customs legislation, it is only in the third year of being in office that the government has announced a large-scale offensive against smuggling. She assumes that such actions might be due to the non-fulfillment of the revenue side of the state budget following the results of the first half of the year and the need to “patch the holes” in the budget.

“We certainly welcome the initiative of the government to combat the violations of the customs regulations. At the same time, these 4 billion dollars of fiscal losses of the budget reported by the government, should not be “accidentally” recovered from bona fide entrepreneurs who are engaged in export-import operations and do not violate any laws.

Business associations want to believe that the Prime Minister really aims to fight with the shadow business and those engaged in organizing illegal schemes. Bona fide businesses are apprehensive that these funds were not squeezed out of them through the increase in customs value,” notes Tetiana Ostrikova.

In addition, the people’s deputy calls for real investigations and bringing to justice those who organize smuggling at the customs:

“If the Minister of Internal Affairs has established there are fiscal losses in the amount of 4 billion dollars and it he plans to recover this amount by the end of the year, then he should also establish in whose pockets this money has been landing all this time and where are the criminal cases in relation to the organizers of the schemes. They are only 5-6 clans known to everyone. Why aren’t there high-profile cases launched against them?”